On Fri, 16 Apr 1999 17:46:09 GMT, victorkhong@sprint.ca (Victor Khong) wrote:

>Just sharing for all wanting to know how it went.
[...rest deleted...]

We just installed a Canopus DV-Raptor in a new
computer to try it. Installation was very easy
(no hitches - it worked the first time...).
Also, the overlay (using a Sony TRV-9 or DVMC-DA1)
worked fine, with one exception: we could not get
overlay on the non-boot second monitor (a 15" we
wanted to use for previewing), though switching
things around solved the problem (if one doesn't
mind having the 15" as the main screen in Windows
98, and the 17" as the secondary...;-). The
timeline playback worked well for a 50-minute
test edit in Premiere 5.1 (things seem to work OK
in MSPro, also, but we haven't given it that much
of a test yet) using 16-gig IBM Deskstar UDMA
drives (not in a RAID... - hey, anyone want a
pair of IBM 9-gig SCSI drives and the adaptec
card???;-). Seamless capture crashed at the end
as the one-hour tape ran out, but switching to
batch capture with a capture list (set up for 61
minutes, with the tape tail captured manually)
worked fine. Having to run the camcorder all
the time you are editing in order to see the
previews is a pain, but the DA1 is a ($400)
solution... I still like the Spark card (I feel
more secure saving edited work as AVI files as I
go, and backing them up to tape for safety for
long projects [then playing the finished pieces
off the HD as a seamless video when finished
with editing, which works well with Spark
version *2.00* software]), but this one is nice,
also, and a bit less trouble to set up, and it
permits a faster (perhaps less secure...) style
of working (though it requires more preview
hardware, but less HD space for a given video
project...).